Denial
by blank-nolongerinuseok
Summary: Emailea refuses to perform the rite of Purification. She is now on the run from both the Imperial Legion and the Dark Brotherhood. How can she escape from this whole mess without losing her life or the ones of those who she holds dear? ReviewsAppreciated!


"I have been waiting for you, assassin. We have not spoken in some time, but I am well aware of your accomplishments within the Dark Brotherhood. That is why I have sent for you. I'm afraid there is... a situation. The time has come to test your skill and loyalty to Sithis."

"Situation? What situation? And I have no need to test my skill and loyalty to Sithis. As you must know as well as my accomplishments, I have always followed the will of the Night Mother," Emailea objected, though her red eyes glinted with curiosity.

"Be quiet," Lucien snapped, and then continued. "The Black Hand has learned that the Dark Brotherhood has been infiltrated. By whom, and for what purpose, we do not yet know."

"_Infiltrated?_" Emailea couldn't hold back her surprise. The Dark Brotherhood was an all knowing, deadly assassination organisation. Surely a guild as secretive as theirs could not be simply _infiltrated._

"What we _do _know is that there is a link between the traitor and the Cheydinhal Sanctuary. The traitor has tainted that place, beyond repair," Lucien spoke over Emailea impatiently. A smirk flitted across his face as Emailea's expression became one of horror. "It was learned that the traitor has been active for quite some time, since before you joined the Brotherhood. That absolves you of any suspicion.

Emailea swallowed hard. Her throat was becoming dry and her eyes widened in realisation. She couldn't say anything though. She couldn't even think straight – but she remembered. She remembered reading in one of the Dark Brotherhood commissioned books not too long ago that occasionally, when one of the many sanctuaries of the Brotherhood were tainted by treachery and by whom the betrayal was committed by was unknown, a rite of Purification was performed. A rite of Purification, meaning...

Everyone had to die.

"Listen well, child of Sithis. You have been chosen to perform the ancient rite known as Purification. Everyone inside the sanctuary must die. You must break one of the tenets you have sworn to uphold. I know this is an unexpected turn of events, but drastic measures must be taken. Ocheeva, Vicente Valtieri, Antoinetta Marie, Grogron gra-Bolmog, Telaendril, M'raaj-Dar and Teinaava. All of these family members must die! From this point forward, you are no longer bound by the five Tenets. Sithis will forgive any murder, any theft, so long as you serve the Black Hand. When the rite of Purification has been completed, return to me here at Fort Farragut, and we will discuss your future. Now –"

"No."

Lucien actually blinked. He might have been a master assassin, a Speaker of the Black Hand, but he was surprised by his pupil, the instrument of death he had so long for influenced. "What do you mean, _no_?" he hissed, his fingers creeping to the hilt of the dagger at his side.

"I said _no,_ Sithis damn it," screamed Emailea, echoing throughout the fortress, loud enough to even rattle the bones of the recently destroyed skeletal Guardians she had defeated. "If Sithis wants this, then I'll just have to invoke his bloody wrath!"

"Emailea, you're crying."

Taken unawares by his surprisingly calm statement, Emailea laid a finger on her left cheek beneath her eye. It was indeed wet. She was crying. "I'm... I'm not...I never cry..."

Lucien's resolve hardened. "Now is not the time for weeping over possible traitors. I need your final answer. Are you going to undertake this task? If your answer is no, you will die."

Emailea thought back to when she first joined the Dark Brotherhood. She thought of Ocheeva's welcoming smile, greeting her as a new family member, truly loving and kind. She remembered being a little scared of Vicente at first, for being a vampire, but he was gentle and pleasant, giving contracts only to her because she was the only one he really trusted. She thought of all the shots and arrows she had thrown on target, thanks to Telaendril's guidance. She thought of all the heads her and Grogron gra-Bolmog had smashed together, laughing. She thought of M'raaj-Dar's constant nastiness towards her, which had inspired her to move on through the Brotherhood and prove her worth to him. She thought of Teinaava's encouraging commentary and Antoinetta Marie's advice and secrets, passed on by the sly. She thought of the time she helped Telaendril prank the skeletal Guardian and how much she adored Schemer, their cuddly, fluffy pet cave rat.

"I wouldn't even be here without them," Emailea whimpered. "Not just being a lower rank than this. I wouldn't even be _alive_."

"_Your answer, Emailea_!" Lucien reminded the struggling Murderer with a vicious snarl.

"My final answer?" Emailea continued crying, but managed a brave, valiant smile. "You really, _really_ want my _final answer_?"

"I don't want to know it. I need it, to know whether I should dispose of you or not. Make your mind up, or you'll never see the light of day again."

"My frigging final answer is _no_, you murderous bastard!" Emailea yelled, kicked Lucien where it _hurt_, and quickly made her escape up the ladder, into the surface ruins of the fortress.

Lucien fell to his knees for a split second, wincing. That girl certainly knew the anatomy of the body of a man...

He gave a rueful grin and steadied himself, using the nearby sarcophagus for support. _You're not the only one who can play the game of denial_, he thought.

"Well, that was eventful," he grunted. He swept over to his nearby desk and began hurriedly writing a letter to Ocheeva:

_My dear Executioner,_

_Emailea is refusing to carry out her duties as an assassin – this is to be punishable by death. Alert the rest of the Sanctuary, whilst I alert the other Speakers. She is wanted. Make sure the whole of the Dark Brotherhood knows that._

_From your superior, _

_Lucien LaChance._

He dropped the letter off at the Cheydinhal Sanctuary and the following evening, Ocheeva paid him a visit.

"What were the orders in the envelope she is refusing to carry out, Lucien?" she asked, her eyes hard and boring into Lucien's. "Tell me. Now."

"The orders... were... to..."

Ocheeva gave an impatient wail. "Spit it out, Lucien! How brutal must these orders _be_, to alienate one of the most loyal members of the Brotherhood?"

"The orders were to dispose of every single member of the family in the Cheydinhal Sanctuary, Ocheeva," Lucien eventually replied, his voice curt, clipped and cold. "It was to be the ancient rite of Purification. Can you see _why_, now, I didn't want to tell you? The reason why you should just have followed your orders? Because, by Sithis, Ocheeva, you were the one person I thought I could trust even more than Emailea."

Ocheeva didn't answer for a few minutes, avoiding meeting Lucien's gaze. Finally, "Pray tell me, Lucien LaChance, why exactly you want to murder your only family?" If Lucien's voice had been cold a minute ago, then Ocheeva's voice was absolutely, utterly freezing. She fixed her superior with a hostile glare.

"Because you or any of the others could be a traitor, for all I know."

"Don't you trust me, Lucien?" Ocheeva asked, obviously hurt by her friend's words.

After a whole minute of silence, Lucien spoke. "No, Ocheeva, I don't. Because if there's anything I've learnt in this business of murder, killing, scheming and deceit, it's not to trust anybody, not even your own family."


End file.
